When he woke, Leslyn knew immediately that he was in a strange place. He was lying on a soft surface, but there was still a faint sense of floating, underscored by the oily scent of pine tar and the deep, drawn-out groan of wood settling somewhere within the walls around him.
He shot up from the bed where he had lain, staring stupidly. He was in a mahogany-paneled room, lit by candles behind mounted glass domes. The floor was made of wooden planks stained the same color, and they creaked when he stood and took a hesitant step. That floor suddenly lurched upward and then dropped hard, inciting a terrifying moment of vertigo. He had never been on a boat before, but there was no doubt in his mind that he was aboard one now.
A pale girl lay unconscious and covered with a heavy quilt on another bed opposite his. Partially fanned out about the pillow under her head, her black hair was straight and appeared to be about shoulder length. Around her neck was a silver necklace decorated with a heart-shaped moonstone, and a large, rectangular bag was placed on the coverlet near her feet. Leslyn stumbled across the room to her, close to falling in his haste to make sure she was breathing, and was relieved when her eyes opened at a touch of her arm. She flattened her back against the headboard and let out a grunt of surprise at the unfamiliar setting, as he had, but then made a peculiar face that Leslyn couldn’t quite translate, her clear, youthful skin going ghastly white.
“What is it? What’s wrong?” he asked, looking her over for wounds.
She pressed her hands to her cheeks and lips, eyes going wide as she felt the smooth skin under her fingers.
She looked at Leslyn, then, in one sudden motion, she flung the quilt aside and put her feet on the floor, launching herself from the bed like a rabbit startled from its burrow. He reached out to stop her, but she was already halfway across the room. She sprinted the length of the space in an instant, so quickly that she could only safely stop herself by falling across the other bed. Leslyn hurried after her, but had jump out of the way when she rolled onto her back and began screaming and lashing out with her legs.
He stared in disbelief. She wasn’t thrashing in fear or defense, nor was she screaming. She was laughing, shrieking with purest delight.
The beautiful but bizarrely-placed sound stopped abruptly when the door to the room swung open to be filled by the bulky silhouette of a strong-looking man. It was hard to see his face with the bright morning sun shining in behind him, but there was pale hair loose about his shoulders and thin lips which were pressed even thinner as he regarded the girl, lying back on the bed with Leslyn poised to…
“Step away, boy, if you know what’s good for you.” There was a growl in the man’s voice and glint of metal in his hand. A knife.
Leslyn stared the other man down, but resisted the urge to defend himself, sensing that it could only make things worse. Even if the man was unarmed, Leslyn's small frame would not be much of a shield for himself, or the girl, if it came to a fight. He held up his hands, but when he opened his mouth to explain the situation, nothing came out except a pathetic puff of air. The truth was, he didn’t know what was going on.
The bed beside him rustled as the girl sat up. “Desmond,” she breathed, “that’s Koben.”
He was about to correct her on his name, but the words died in his throat. That was Koben? He stared at the very real threat that stood in the same room with them, trying to comprehend the odd stroke of fate.
“Don’t worry. He’s a big teddy bear.”
A what?
“Not sure why you’re here this time, but I’m glad.” With that last whisper, the girl grinned cheerily to the big man. “Sorry for the commotion, I fell when that last big wave hit us. Scared me silly. Our friend here was coming to pull me up.”
The man lowered his weapon hesitantly at first, but then sheathed his knife with relaxed ease, returning the girl’s bright smile. “I was more worried about you, but it looks like our friend’s the one who swallowed too much seawater. Sit down, boy, before you fall down.”
A well-timed wave tipped the room just then, making it a completely natural act for Leslyn to drop onto the bed. It was just as well. His legs had gone slack enough to pass for boneless.
“You’re pale as a vampire, Desmond.” the girl chuckled.
“Stop calling me that. My name is Leslyn.” And what, exactly, was a vampire?
Her head shook a little as she startled. “You actually want to play along? Huh, I didn’t expect that. Nice to meet you, Leslyn. I’m Erin.” She made the introduction at normal volume, then dropped her voice again to mutter, “Your face is a bit different here—and for the better, I might add—but it looks like you’ll always be shorter than me, even in a dream.” She grinned wickedly.
He stared at her.
“Water,” came Koben’s conversational tone. “That, and some sunshine should do you two some good. Breakfast will be ready soon. Let’s get on deck while we wait.”
Not trusting his still-shaky legs, Leslyn accepted Erin’s hand when she offered it. They followed the man outside, and Leslyn promptly felt like he was losing his balance again, if not his mind altogether.
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In the pungent scent of sea spray and damp wood, he craned his neck to stare up at the impossible pinnacles of earth and rock that rose out of the water all around them. Numerous narrow cliffs stretched upward in spires hundreds of lengths, yet the clouds were somehow even farther beyond, puffy clumps floating in the far-distant atmosphere. The spires dotted the water in all directions, most so spindly that one could easily walk their circumference in less than an hour, but here and there were larger masses, and the largest yet was straight ahead on the horizon, their obvious destination.
As he gazed off at the island, he suddenly became aware of a faint violet discoloration in the clouds above it. It wasn’t the clouds gone purple. It was Crylis: a broken moon visible by day, half consumed by the horizon but still so large and so close that he could see the features of its vibrant crystalline landscape with the naked eye. There were dozens of smaller pieces of it orbiting itself, many so small that they appeared as a veil of dust—as if it had been shattered by a giant sledgehammer.
He never even noticed that Koben had gone below deck through another door, but the man was just returning, dodging busy crew members who were coming up to work. He brought two metal cups of clean water which he handed off to Leslyn and Erin. His alert eyes were hazel, and there was a few days’ worth of blond stubble on his face that he rubbed at as he followed Leslyn’s gaze upward toward the moon. “Crylis is certainly bright today, isn’t he?” When neither youth answered, he looked back and studied his new charges. “So, how did you end up all the way out here?”
Leslyn sipped at his water to win a few moments of desperate grasping for an answer, but Erin was already prepared with hers. “I’m from Lutendel. The storm pushed us off course. My memory of the wreck is almost like a dream. Feels like it didn’t really happen.”
“Lutendel? Never heard. I reckon that’s somewhere beyond the maps we have out here. I don’t know how you survived sailing this far, but I’d wager you’re the luckiest wreckling in a couple of lifetimes. My condolences for all who were on board your ship.”
“Thanks,” she said, her face falling to an appropriate level of sadness. "I didn't really know anyone, but they were all good people."
“Your parents?”
“I’m an orphan. Just looking for a new life, I guess.”
“I see. And you, Leslyn? How came you to my ship?”
“I… I don’t know, sir. Last I remember, I was with my brother. We’re from Gerrit…”
The man’s brows rose suspiciously. “Can’t you recall? Are you a stowaway, perhaps?”
“N-No, that’s not it! If I had a moment to think properly…” The effort of trying to remember under such pressure made the world spin. “Excuse me, I think I might be sick.”
“Of course, take all the time you need to concoct a suitable tale. I’ll be patiently waiting right here.”
He wobbled to the railing, grasped it for support, and looked out on the water. The surface seemed gentle enough, but the many-times echoes that ricocheted from cliff to cliff as waves crashed against the rock were unsettling. It made it impossible to tell what direction the faint screech of gulls, the chatter of the crew on deck, or any other sound was coming from.
He focused instead on the visible, trying not to think too hard about what lay in the dark depths below even as his eyes dropped in that direction. He was startled to see a small something moving near the ship, keeping pace with it. The thing was gone quickly after he noticed it, diving and veering off toward the other side of the ship.
“Something’s down there,” he said, raising his voice so that Koben could hear.
“It’s a merling.” Koben joined him at the rail, Erin hot on his heels. “He’s been shadowing us for some time now. Since we picked Erin up, in fact. I suspect that he may have had a hand—or fin—in bringing you to our attention,” he told her.
Erin leaned over the railing, trying to get a better look. “He helped me?”
“Possibly, but I can’t even begin to guess why. Perhaps he feels guilty about his involvement in your wreck—or perhaps he wants to make sure to finish what he started.” Koben crossed his arms, side-eyeing the water below with suspicion. “I’ve been waiting for his seabeast to come and reduce my ship to splinters, but he hasn’t summoned it yet. He's definitely playing at something, venturing into this area out of season. They always prefer deeper waters during the Dry.”
Leslyn felt heavy all over. If there was a merling stalking them, his chances of getting to Nilvar were practically nothing, then.
Erin saw the look on his face and sidled over to hold his hand again. “I know what you’re thinking,” she said in a low voice. “Seriously, it’s okay. We’ll be fine. It’s just a dream. The best one in a long time. Feels like we’re really here, instead of just watching.”
If it had been any normal day, he would have been more than a little offended at the gesture and reasonably miffed at the assumption that he required her opinion, but this was not a normal day. It was immensely comforting.
However, the girl was obviously moon-brained. He rolled his eyes up toward the heavens in preparation to beg the highest power he knew of for mercy, just in time to see a huge winged creature descend from above. With a wingspan that must have been at least thirty feet, the gray-colored griffin slowly glided in to land with a resounding thump of his padded hind paws on the planks of the ship. He bent forward and braced himself upon his wings as if they were front legs, beak clacking and mane rising warily as he glared down at the people on deck with feline yellow eyes.
The soldier perched on the griffin’s back shouted something, but Leslyn couldn’t hear it over Erin’s startled shriek. He hurried over to stand by the griffin’s side, craning his head to see the soldier’s face peering at him from above. “I see you’re feeling better, little brother,” Liren called down. It was good to hear his voice.
“Better? How bad was I?” Obviously bad enough that he’d lost a bit of memory.
“It was Laria. The sickness hit you like a boulder while we were flying to Nilvar. Had to drop you on the nearest floater with an empty bed and medicine to spare.”
Leslyn shot a sharp look back toward a grinning Koben. The man had known full well his identity and reason for being on the ship all along.
“Right, isn’t it grand that it was his boat you got?”
“The only thing grand about it is that he’s from Nilvar. But wouldn’t it be faster if we just fl—?”
“Yardi and I are going up again, Leslie,” Liren shouted over him. “Koben’s drafted me to scout for the rest of the voyage. I envy you, getting to spend so much time with him. See you later.”
Liren’s griffin Yardi crouched and then sprang into the air, the first flap of his wings nearly bowling Leslyn over with wind. Leslyn resisted the desire to shout at his brother to come back and whisk him away, instead focusing on standing as straight and tall as possible as another wave of illness struck him. He brushed the girl away as she came to try and “help” again.
“I can’t believe it!” she yelped. “They’re so BIG!”
Ignoring Erin’s rapid questions about his brother and griffin, he calmly turned and marched below deck, lifted the quilt on one of the beds, flopped down face first into the pillow, and yanked the cover over his head.